March has come roaring in like the proverbial lion. As the winds have been howling up here in Ohio, and February has come to an end, the first of the birthdays has begun. Now nearly every two days or so, another one of us is getting older. Hopefully in order, here are the newest victims to the years:

Unfortunately, February also ended on a very sad note. Cliff (DO's hubby) was nearly in an accident, after having been half-sick for about a week. His seatbelt (which he didn't have over his shoulder; but instead, under his armpit) tugged so hard, that he was injured internally, without knowing it. Within 3 days (Sun, Feb 24), Cliff was very ill and was taken to Doctors Hospital (just a few blocks from where Jim and I work, and the very same hospital where Jodi works). With nearly 0 blood pressure, pneumonia, and a bleeding lung, he was immediately put into ICU as critical. The poor man had so many tubes and wires hooked up to him although the worst by far, was the ventilator. Needless to say, the family was called in from town, West Virginia, and North Carolina because several times within the first few days of his hospitalization, Cliff very nearly died. More about Cliff's condition later.

Of course, poor DO has had a rough time through all of this. To make matters worse for her, three days after Cliff was admitted to the hospital, DO had to go to the hospital herself. For several years, she has had a small lump growing under the ball of her left foot. For several months, she has had surgery scheduled to remove this tumorous mass. She keep the appointment for the surgery and is doing well hobbling about the house. I've been down nearly every night to check up on her, and have the phone turned on beside my bed, just in case she needs help.

During the first weekend of March, Jim and I took a trip up to Cleveland to attend the annual Greater Cleveland Auto Show. If you had told me a couple of years ago, that I would actually be looking forward to such an event, I know I would have laughed at you; yet now, here I am, learning all about automobiles (better late than never, huh, Dad?). Of course, I took pictures (WooHoo! content for the Waikem Wheel newsletter!)

Pictures from the 2002 Car Show
Chrysler's New Crossfire	Chrysler's New Crossfire	Honda Exhibit
2003 Hyundai Tiburon GT	Hyundai Elantra GT	Mitsubishi Lancer

I picked up an early bday present for myself at the Auto Show and it wasn't the usual sunglasses (I have over 3 dozen pairs now. LOL). I got myself a pair of "cocker sockers". Yeppers, socks with cockers on them!

This has been a busy week for me. My boss is friends with the owner of a nearby auto body repair shop and they're in need of a computer guy, so guess who my boss offered? That's right - ME! Actually, this little job hasn't turned out to be too hard. They needed two new computers, DSL, and their software transferred over to the new machines. So far, everything but the DSL is handled and that's coming on the 18th.

I've enjoyed this side-job because it's been a challenge, the crew there is nice, and I've not only gotten money from this job but a whole new computer!! Well not actually new, but only about a year old. This new computer is almost identical to the one I currently have. Now, I've moved my workstation but into my dining room (where Jodi and I computed for several years) and am running dueling computers. WooHoo! Now if I can just get rid of the three old Windows 3.1 machines that they keep giving me from Waikem's. LOL (They keep thinking they have computers that the dealerships can actually use; but these machines are just too out-of-date for our needs. I bring the old machines home and vandalize them for the memory, the speakers, the floppy drives, just about anything that I think I might need to fix up other computers someday.)

Another birthday gift for me arrived early - a Prince concert! (Thanks again, Jim!) A little background info first about why a Prince concert was an awesome bday gift - see, many years ago (back in the dark ages of 1984), Randy and I went on our first date. We went and saw the movie Purple Rain. I had already been a Prince fan and that flix sealed the deal. Our first two spaniels were named from Prince albums (Appollonia and Elektra); we named the pet store on a variation of the movie title (It's "Reigning" Pets); and my first tattoo was from the artwork on the liner jacket of the Purple Rain album.

Needless to say, it was quite exciting seeing Prince up close and personal. We had really good seats near the front of the balcony and were blown away by Prince's vocal and musical talents. He mostly sang songs from his newest album, and although I hadn't bought it yet and had never heard any of the songs. Prince still sang quite a few of the older tunes (Purple Rain, Strange Relationship, Raspberry Beret, The Beautiful Ones, Take me with You). Even though I was saddened that Randy couldn't have been there with me, I totally and thoroughly enjoyed the 3 hour show.

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All in all, I got quite a few really NICE presents for my 40th birthday:

Besides the Prince concert, Jim got me a hand-crafted kaleidoscope, made by another friend at Waikem, Rick Ballas.
Thanks Jim and Rick!

Aries wants to see if there is something in the present for him	I'm trying to figure out where the present IS in all the wrapping
Now Zeus wants to check out the present	This can keep me occupied for hours!

My good friend, Ruth, who works at Waikem Ford, gave me the cutest mini optical mouse you ever saw. All the teasing I got from her ("tick, tick, tick") was worth it. LOL
Thanks, Ruthie!!

I got two cakes on my birthday (which is better than the year I didn't get any cake or the year after, when everyone tried to make-up and I got 8 cakes!). I wasn't expecting anything at work, and was pleasantly surprised that the office manager, Meredith, got me a large marble sheet cake. Yummy! It was good, and the salesmen quickly and efficiently helped me devour it!

Yum! Thanks, Meredith!

DO and her daughter Linda got me duplicate presents just like I wanted - two lava lamps. DO got me a nice blue one for my bedroom, while Linda's red lamp will look just fine in my living room.
Thanks bunches Ladies!! The lamps are just what I asked for!

Of course, one of my Ohio "moms", DO, also got me a birthday cake. You can see that I made a minor adjustment to the salutation on the cake. ROFL

Gayle, my boss' secretary and my good friend, gave me a pack of CD jewel cases, and a present that anyone can give me knowing I'll love it - another mask for my wall!
Thank you, Gayle!

Last, but not least, my GrandMother sent me a check. With $3 dollars from my pocket, it just covered the cost of my renewed driver's license and plates for my Taurus. WooHoo!
Thanks GrandMother!

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Now, here's where I tell on myself. I know a lot about computers but obviously not everything. As I was setting up the new computer, I accidentally spilled a little Coke (just a few drops) on the keyboard to my old computer. I decided it was time to take the keys off and actually clean the keyboard. (Boy, how does that much dog hair get up onto my desk?!?) I thought that a little blowing from the hair dryer would speed up the drying process after I had washed all the keys. As you can see from the pictures below, only a few seconds of heat is enough to melt most of the keys. Unfortunately, my birthday has already passed, so I'll have to buy a new keyboard myself. The good thing is that I'll finally get a keyboard with a touch pad that I've been wanting. I have a reason to go get it now - it's not impossible to access my computer without a keyboard but it ain't easy. LOL

Cliff is still in the hospital, which is lot better than the alternative. He's still on a ventilator, although it's now run through his throat rather than through his mouth. Cliff is doing better in small spurts. Over half of the IVs are gone; he's more conscious (the doctors had been keeping him knocked out and paralyzed for the first two weeks so that he wouldn't fight the ventilator and give his lungs a chance to heal); his blood pressure is holding more steady; but the poor guy still has a long way to go. He's still on the vent, in ICU, and listed critical but stable. The doctors have changed his prognosis to 50/50 and if they can keep him healing in little spurts, they may have him out of the hospital within a month or so. Right now, Cliff's future is still iffy; but every day that he hangs on, is another day that his body is healing up a little, and that's a very good thing.

DO got the stitching out of her foot (on the 14th) and is doing well. She's had a little pain but that's to be expected. It's good to see her out of her house and moving about more. Lately when she has gone anyway, it's been to have someone take her to the hospital to see Cliff. Since he's been unconscious most of the time, DO hasn't visited Cliff a lot but enough to let him know that she's there for him. Keep thinking good thoughts for the both of them during this very hard and trying time.

It's been hard handling work and trying to be there for Cliff and DO. Cliff hasn't been doing well at all. Please go to next month to get the latest updates.